No Place Like Home
by Randomcat100
Summary: Now that Max has found out who her mom is, she, the Flock, Dr. Martinez and Ella flee to New York and they have begun school. Normal, human school for the 2nd time in their lives. Things are going great, until Angel has a very mysterious vision…and in it she sees files on her and her brother at the Institute, different files than last time. Prepare for all hell to break lose.
1. 1: Flying

No Place Like Home: A Maximum Ride Story

By Randomcat100

Full Summary: Set after _Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports_ and does not account for any events thereafter. Includes OC. Also mingles the events of the first three books; Total is an ordinary dog, Erasers are portrayed the way they were in The Angel Experiment, Ari didn't die but is still with the School, and so on and so forth. Now that Max has found out who her mom is, she, the Flock, Dr. Martinez and Ella flee to New York and they have begun school. Normal, human school for the 2nd time in their lives. Things are going great, until Angel has a very mysterious vision…and in it she sees files on her and her brother at the Institute, different files that last time. Prepare for all hell to break lose.

* * *

Chapter 01: Flying

* * *

_Bird's eye view_

_Awake the stars 'cause they're all around you_

_Wide eyes will always brighten the blue_

_Chase your dreams_

_And remember me, sweet bravery, 'cause_

_After all those wings will take you up so high_

_So bid the forest floor goodbye_

_As you race the wind and_

_Take to the sky._

- Owl City, _To The Sky_

* * *

**_~Nudge POV~_**

Funny, really. How fast one's life could change. Mere days ago, we'd been at the Itex headquarters in Germany, fighting for our lives. Now, we had a home, a mom, a new sister.

A home. Family. A real parent.

Max had always been like a mom to us, even before we escaped the School with Jeb the Asshole. But not quite enough, never quite enough. She was just a kid herself, at fourteen. Now we wouldn't have to worry about that. Now we had Dr. Martinez. And Ella, whom, so far, I really liked. She seemed genuine, kind.

Add that to the fact that she wanted to help us bring down Itex and the School and Max had the best half – sister she could possibly imagine.

Of course, we couldn't stay in Arizona. They knew Dr. Martinez lived there, and knew that we'd go to find her. So now we were heading to New York, because Dr. Martinez had managed to find work there. A cheap apartment with enough bedrooms for all nine of us to squeeze in.

New York! We hadn't been there for very long, back in September. And we'd been sleeping in trees in Central Park, subway tunnels underground. Now we'd have a real bedroom with real beds and I'd probably be sharing with Angel just like we used to back in Colorado.

Colorado…

Another funny thing to think of: the home where we'd spent the past four years of our lives was now burnt to smithereens. I'd miss the old place, miss the stream where we'd wade around and get eachother soaked. The wide, open space where we could fly without having to worry about being seen.

The train we were taking to The Big Apple squealed to a stop at the station of some small town I'd never heard of. I watched the people go about, heaving bags of things they didn't need off and on the train. After a short while, five, ten minutes maybe, the train began to move again.

I looked around our compartment. Dr. Martinez, Max, and Ella were involved in a game of Crazy Eights. Fang was sitting across from me, looking out the window, being Fang. Iggy and Annalisa were seated side by side, eyes closed, sharing an iPod. If I focused, I could just hear Pink Floyd's _The Wall_ coming out of the little earbuds. Little Angel, asleep, her head resting on her brother's lap, Celeste and Total curled up next to her. Gazzy, too, was asleep, his head lolling in time with the train's jerky movement, his fingers resting in Angel's hair as if he'd been stroking it.

Peaceful.

Back when we'd been on the run, sleeping in said trees in Central Park, said subway tunnels, a peaceful life, one where we didn't have to run, seemed ideal. To have a parental figure in our lives, not Max, but a grown – up like Jeb. Minus the betrayal part.

Such an existence had been all I'd wanted. And now I had it. I had it, and I wasn't sure I wanted it.

After being so familiar with living on the streets, after living and breathing the adrenaline of freedom and fear of being on the run…after having to worry about nothing but how to survive the next day…did I really want to live a life of order, school, parents, and rules?

Who would want to go to school, with all the expectations and bureaucratic control freaks, when you could be free?

There was something liberating in being on the run, trusting no one but yourself and the rest of your family, not knowing if you'd wake up at all the next morning.

Something liberating in terror.

Could I really let that all go?

I closed my eyes. When would I be able to fly now? My wings itched to unfurl themselves now, to catch the breeze and leave the world behind. To simply soar above the world, above life, in defiance of all its difficulties and flaws. To let the wind catch my hair, my feathers, and become ruler of my own body.

To feel everything and nothing all at once, not having to fear or feel anything.

Just to…take to the sky.

* * *

"I wanna share with Nudge again, I wanna share with Nudge again!" Angel bounced up and down, her little bear, Celeste, pressed tightly to her chest. She turned to look up at me. "You wanna share with me again, right? Like in our room in Colorado?"

I bent down a bit to ruffle her blond hair. "Yep. Max, that's okay, right? If me and Ang' share a room like in Colorado?"

Max shrugged. "Fine by me."

We were in our new apartment in New York. It was a small, inexpensive four-bedroom place near the Williamsburg Bridge. So far, we'd come down to me and Angel sharing a room, Max, Ella, and Annalisa sharing another, Dr. Martinez in one to herself and Fang and the Gasman sharing another room.

Iggy wanted to sleep on the sofa bed, which was probably best because nobody really wanted to be woken in the middle of the night by his spontaneous explosions. Fang had learned that the hard way back in Colorado, when he and Ig had been sharing. As soon as Iggy had mastered the art of bomb – making, he'd set one off under Fang's bed as a joke.

In the middle of the night.

It had not gone over well.

I walked around slowly, taking in the marvel that was this little place. The flat had come fully furnished as part of the package deal, an offer I hadn't heard of before. I stroked a small snowglobe lying on a bare bookshelf. Ironically, the snowglobe featured a small bird taking flight. I picked it up and shook it, entranced by this marvel of an object; I'd never seen a snowglobe before. The small white flakes swirled around in the little globe, each individual flake its own dance.

A tugging on my sleeve made me turn. Angel, Celeste hugged dutifully to her chest and a small scowl on her face. "Come on, Nudge," she said. "Let's go choose our room!"

All four bedrooms held twin beds, all with varying sorts of bedspreads. Angel and I immediately settled for the one nearest the kitchen. It was smallest, snug, like the room we'd shared back in Colorado. Someone had pasted a Justin Beiber poster to the wall, which Angel immediately tore down and gave to Iggy to detonate.

Total followed Angel into the room, and the six – year – old swept him up, deposited him on her bed. The dog licked her face and collapsed, peacefully, into a gentle doze.

"Dogs fall asleep real fast," Angel said thoughtfully.

* * *

We ordered pizza for dinner, cheese and pepperoni and Hawaiian and vegetarian for me. We also ordered a soda each, and dinner was just a feast of pizza, Coca – Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Nestea, and Snapple.

Angel insisted on giving a slice of each pizza to Total, who was all too happy to devour up _my _pizza. The others looked none too happy about this, either. It was nice, having supper with Dr. Martinez and Ella. There was chitchat and laughter and food being thrown, much like when we'd been living in our mountain home in Colorado.

After dinner, there was the expected fight to use the bathroom. The problem with our place here was that there was only one bathroom.

Of course, after all our troubles, there being only one bathroom was the least of our worries.

**Author's Note: I wrote this while listening to ****_Alice's Theme_**** from the ****_Alice in Wonderland_**** soundtrack. The new one with Johnny Depp and Bellatrix LeStrange. Such a wonderful film…and such a dramatic piece of music for such a peaceful chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and remember to review!**


	2. 2: Dreaming

Chapter 02: Dreaming

* * *

_And nothing is quite what it seems_

_You're dreaming_

_Are you dreaming?_

_Oh, Alice!_

- _Alice's Theme_ from the _Alice in Wonderland_ soundtrack (2010 version)

* * *

**_~Annalisa POV~_**

Dr. Martinez left early for work, but she left us a note and groceries in the refrigerator for Iggy to make breakfast, and right now we were just polishing off pancakes that couldn't have been better if we'd bought them at a restaurant.

It was a Saturday, so we wouldn't be starting school until Monday. Yes. School. None of us had been very happy about the news except for Ella. Dr. Martinez had signed us up at a public school, a very originally named George Washington Academy. It went from kindergarten to twelfth grade, so we wouldn't be very separated from the younger kids.

Dr. Martinez had also left us money to do school-shopping, and we all ventured out to purchase large backpacks and binders.

"I want to have a white one," Angel said, tugging at the sleeve of my jumper.

"Won't a white one get dirty?" Ella asked absently, examining a _Pokémon pencil case._

Angel sighed in exasperation. "Yeah, but it'll match Celeste." She stroked her omnipresent ballerina bear. "I'm going to ask Max." She swung the white backpack onto her shoulder and ran off to find her, who was with Fang and Nudge checking out binders.

Max enthusiastically agreed to Angel getting a white backpack, which made me suspicious that the six – year – old used her special mind control power on her. But Max was the leader, so we all bought a backpack each and a binder each and a pencil case each.

"Still hate New York?" I asked Iggy, bumping him with my hip as we made our way back to the flat. Swinging my new navy blue backpack from one hand.

He made a face. "Too noisy. Too many smells. In a word: yes, I still very much hate it." He paused, considering. "Except for the food. I liked the food. If we hadn't spent all our money, we could have stopped to get corn dogs in Central Park."

"Don't mention corn dogs," I pleaded. "It makes me feel like your pancakes weren't enou – oh, wow!" I stumbled to a stop and stared at the building before me.

"What is it?" Iggy asked in annoyance, slowing down.

"Possibly the biggest library I've ever seen in my life," I explained. "And I'm going in. Hey, Max!"

"What?" she called without stopping. Angel, however, who was skipping alongside her, slowed down.

"She wants to go to the library and make an account," Angel reported, obviously reading my mind. "and get, like, a gazillion books."

"It is a big library," Ella observed. "Bigger than the one back in Arizona. I think I'll go, too."

In the end, Ella, Nudge, and I went to the library and the other headed home. I took one step into the building and my heart began to pound in excitement.

It felt homey, if you will. The comforting musty smell of books hanging peacefully in the air, the musac playing in the background. The rough gray carpets, the soft armchairs by the windows. "Oh, wicked," I breathed. Turned to the others. "Think they have the Harry Potters?"

"Duh," said Nudge. "Let's go make accounts so you can get them."

We strode to the front desk and all made accounts. Ella and I kept our names, because they were real names. Normal, human names. Ella's because she was a normal human, mine because it was just sheer dumb luck I'd given myself that name. Nudge took the name she'd chosen for herself at school, Genevieve.

I scouted the shelves and eventually came across all the Harry Potters except for The Order of the Phoenix, as well as a stack of Shakespeare. Ella got something called Divergent and Nudge a Sandman comic.

We stuffed the books into our bags and made our way to the flat.

"Where are we gonna fly here?" Nudge asked suddenly.

I ruffled her unruly black hair. "I don't know. Maybe we can head over to Brooklyn and fly there."

"Yeah," Ella said softly. A distant look on her face. Envy. Longing. "I suppose so." She nodded at the building across the street. "C'mon. Shall we?"

I realized we were in front of the apartment building. I nodded quickly and crossed, glad for the distraction from an otherwise awkward silence.

When we got in, Iggy was already making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and the rest of the Flock was sprawled around the living room floor watching TV.

"You're not listening, Ig?" asked Nudge sweetly. Sitting on the Formica counter.

Iggy shrugged. "Nah." He turned to face me. "I assume you got a whole colossal stack of books for yourself?"

I set the backpack down on the counter with a thud, and he winced. "That sounds heavy. I think you've broken your record. Anything good?"

"Yep," I replied. "I got my hands on Julius Caesar!"

He groaned. "Shakespeare again? Just don't wake me up in the middle of the night reading it to me."

I smirked. "We'll see…"

* * *

_**~Angel POV~**_

"Good night, sweetie," Max said, tucking a lock of my hair behind one ear. "Sweet dreams."

"You too," I replied softly. Max's smile lingered for a moment before she tucked the covers around me tighter. Planted a kiss on my cheek. Left the room, flipping off the light switch as she did so with another "Night!" to Nudge and me.

"I like it here," Nudge whispered. Her voice slicing through the darkness. "There's so much to do and see, and we get to go to normal school like normal kids and learn normal stuff. Like multiplication and division and grammar and biology and stuff." A pause for air, the she continued. "And, like, lunch in the cafeteria and recess and a playground. And this school doesn't even have uniforms like the one we went to in Virginia! And - "

"Nudge!"

"Oh. Sorry. I was ranting off again."

"You were," I sighed. "But you're right about the uniforms. I mean, the old ones kinda crushed my wings in."

"Exactly. Anyway, night." Nudge suppressed a yawn, and her thoughts were beginning to swirl together and become the jumbled mess of exhaustion. She rolled over.

I cuddled Celeste close and shut my own eyes. I fell asleep quickly, and my mind gave way to a dreamland.

_I'm standing, but there is no floor beneath my feet. Instead I am just…standing in a floating haze of blue and white, the colors blurred together like a watercolor painting. My wings are tucked in, and I'm hugging Celeste. I do not know where Total is, but somehow I know that he is safe._

_Other than Celeste, I am alone._

_Or am I?_

_Noises begin to make their way into my dream. Somehow I know this is all a dream. The sound of a keyboard, the ticking of a clock, a faint humming. _

_A scream pierces the air, and I don't know who it is. But the image around me changes. The watercoloresque world around me ripples, the colors fading into silver and the dark red of blood._

_I can hear a voice saying, "It hurts, Ig." My voice, though my lips don't move. It's just floating over to me. _

_"I know, honey. I know." Iggy's voice, gentle and crooning and soothing. "But it'll go away eventually."_

_Suddenly, a gust of wind rips Celeste from my hands. I shriek her name. "Celeste!" I'm racing to chase her, but she's caught fire. I cry out my bear's name again. "Celeste!"_

_Once again, the scene ripples. Changes. No longer a collage of soft pastels, but a room. I'm two years old again, and Gazzy is four and he's got his arm around me. We're lying on a mattress with a blanket over us. We've just escaped the School with Jeb. This is not a dream, somehow I know this. It's a memory._

_"I'm scared, Gazzy," I whisper to him. "What if they come get us 'n' hurt us? What if they kill us?"_

_"They're not gonna hurt you, Ang'," Gazzy croons. "And if you die, then I go first. I promise. I'm not gonna let 'em do anything bad to you. I promise you, Angel."_


	3. 3: Frowning

**Author's Note: Blast! I am back! And after such a long time too! But I'm back, and updates will be regular from here on out. So that's good news. Right? I think it is. I live for writing. I will update soon, I promise you, and I'll divide time equally between this story and my fan fiction for _Les Mis_, which is called _Just A Child._**

* * *

Chapter 03: Frowning

_And must my name until I die_

_Be no more than an alibi?_

_Must I lie?_

~from the _Les Misérables_ musical, _Who Am I?_, Valjean

* * *

**_~Max POV~_**

When I woke up, I woke to a loud bouncing sound that made me groan. Light, childish laughter danced through the darkness from behind closed lids. I cracked open one eye to see Angel jumping up and down on my bed, chanting, "Wake up Max, wake up Max, wake up Max..."

I raised my head. "I am up! Angel; get off my bed!"

"No," she called back, and I noticed she was wearing just her thin white nightdress. It floated around her skinny little girl legs, giving her a ghostly look. "You used to wake Fang up like this all the time. You used to land between his legs all the time." She emphasized this with a hard bounce.

Slowly, I began to crawl out from under my sheets. A look around revealed Annalisa and Ella gone, their beds unmade. Celeste lay on the floor, forgotten for the moment. I was now free from my sheets. Angel didn't seem to notice. Grinning, I took them in my hands. One swift motion and I had her scooped up in them, and she was shrieking and giggling. I swung my Angel round and round, marched out the room and caught sight of Ella.

"Ella, help me with the laundry!" I called. In the sheets, Angel yelled and giggled and squealed, in that way only six - year - olds can do.

"Ella, Ella, no!" she was screeching. Delighted. "Don't put me in the laundry!"

It was at times like these she acted the way she ought, act her age, act like a six - year - old girl should act. Happy and carefree and innocent. What with what we've gone through, the School had sucked up her childhood. Given her wings, bizarre powers, great and terrible beauties, and taken her innocence in exchange.

And whatever they'd done to her last time made her lose about 15 pounds, making her skinny as ever. She only weighed about 25 pounds now, giving her a disturbing malnourished look.

I deposited her on the ground and she picked herself up, still laughing hysterically. A moment later, Angel was gone, disappeared into her bedroom to change.

Everybody seemed to be awake. Annalisa, Nudge, and Fang were sprawled in front of the television. Gazzy was helping my mom set the table while Iggy made French toast.

"Do we have to go to school?" Gazzy complained.

"What do you think?" I answered, and he grumbled.

Breakfast was an affair of Gazzy and Nudge whining, Angel crying for God-knows-why, my mom and Ella trying to soothe her, Annalisa rolling her eyes and ignoring us, Iggy making sarcastic comments, Fang sitting there like a rock being Fang, and me yelling. It wasn't pretty.

Once I'd managed to get Gazzy to dress, and pack his bag, Mom stayed my hand with hers. "Max. Actually, all of you – I have some gifts."

"Gifts?" Nudge squealed, raising her head. She'd been trying – and failing – to tie her shoes. "Really, Dr. Martinez?"

Mom grinned. "Sure. Come on." She strode into her room, emerged moments later laden down with brightly colored bags. Angel and Nudge were ecstatic. "Oh, thank you, Dr. Martinez, thank you!"

Dr. Martinez laughed and pulled out the first package, wrapped in green paper. "For you, Gazzy."

The Gasman glanced nervously at her before accepting the gift. Small fingers tore open the packaging to reveal a huge box of Lego. "Oh, wicked!" he exclaimed. "Thank you, thank you!"

One by one, the gifts were opened. I had a new pair of shoes; my old trainers were worn through. Fang and Iggy both received iPods. Nudge had a camera. Annalisa got a translation of _Les Misérables._

"One more – this one's for you, Angel," said Mom, sliding the little girl her gift.

Angel took it with trembling fingers. Her gift was small and box-shaped, wrapped in plain white paper. Angel set her Celeste aside and slowly ripped the paper.

What lay beneath was a beautiful wooden box, with a polished finish. Angel ran her small fingers over the box, stroking it over and over, almost lovingly.

"Open the box, Angel," Ella instructed, leaning over her.

Angel did. It was a music box – a small ballerina twirled inside on her stick, round and round, playing Beethoven's _Für Elise. _She spun and spun, trapped on a single rod of metal, going round and round. Angel watched her, entranced. She didn't touch the box, as if afraid of it.

Dr. Martinez leaned over and snapped the box shut, ending the ballerina and ending her song. "It's time for you to go to school. Wouldn't want to be late."

Angel nodded and took Celeste in her arms, but she didn't take her eyes off the box. She stared at it on the coffee table until she was out the door, and even once we were in the bustling streets of New York she kept peeking over her shoulder as if expecting to find her box somewhere, floating above the heads of obvious pedestrians.

* * *

**_~Nudge POV~_**

_My name is Nudge. Nudge is who I am, and who I always will be_.

I stood at the front of the class, in room 316. home form 6-E. Sixth grade, class E. And eyes on me, so many judging eyes on me, wondering about who I was, what kind of girl I was.

_I am like nothing you could possibly imagine._

"Have a seat then, Genevieve," the teacher, Mrs. Chen, trilled, pointing to the only free desk available. Second row, by the door. All eyes followed me as I sat down and dropped my backpack on the floor.

I skirted the surrounding area. The children has begun to focus on the teacher again. Either her or their mobiles. Mostly their mobiles.

The teacher droned on and on about how to calculate exponents, and how to divide fractions. And I thought, _Who cares? When will I actually need to divide a fraction in _my _life?_

I closed my eyes and thought hard: _Hey Angel. Can you hear me?_

I opened my eyes again, looked at the clock on the wall by the blackboard. _Tick-tock, tick-tock_.

_Angel?_

_Tick-tock, tick-tock. _

_Angel. Can you hear me?_

_Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tick-tick, tock._

And then: _Nudge? Hi._

I tried to wipe the smile on my face. _Ang'. How're things faring with you?_

It was then I noted the fear in her voice: _Nudge? Nudge, there's something very wrong withh my class. It's scaring me, Nudge._

_Relax, Ang'…relax…it's just first-day angst._ I opened my binder with an audible _click_ and flipped to a blank sheet of paper. Made it seem as if I was taking notes.

_No, Nudge._ A suppressed whimper. _You don't get it. I…I'll tell you all at lunch. _

When I called to her again, she did not answer. I glanced up at Mrs. Chen. "…and this is called the base…"

I tuned her out just as quickly as I'd focused on her, began to doddle on my paper. The children around me kept glancing at me; curious. I suddenly felt terribly conscious of my wings, pressed tightly against my back by my T-shirt. The feathers tickled my back, whispered to me: '_Fly. Go on, fly. Why don't you want to fly anymore?_'

* * *

**_~Angel POV~_**

"How come you're so _thin_?" a boy next to me whispered loudly. He scooted his plastic chair closer to me. "How come?"

I looked up from my word search. "I don't know," I replied haughtily. "I just am."

The boy shrugged. "Huh."

I cocked my head, examining him closely. The terrible feeling in my gut strengthened, now a panging, wailing horror. I'd known the moment I walked into room 308, homeform 1-D, that something was not right, something was amiss.

Now I knew it was this boy.

"Trade chairs with me?" the boy asked, pointing at my blue chair, then at his pink one. "I don't want a stupid girl's chair."

"Okay." I stood and slowly slid my chair over. He got to his feet, plopped down in the blue one, and returned to his word search. I stuck my tongue out. He was going to make me _get_ the pink chair. Jerk.

I crossed my arms and thought hard: _Stand up. Give me the chair._

Nothing.

_Go on, stand up. I want you to give me my chair. Now._

The boy kept on working.

_I said, give. Me. My. Chair. Right. Now. _I scowled. _Or else,_ I added, using Max's favorite threat.

But the boy didn't even react.

Slowly, I stalked over and picked the pink chair up, bumping it hard with his as I passed. He didn't even move, so I gave him a good poke with one of its legs on the back of his head.

The boy didn't flinch.

The teacher did, though. "Angel? Angel, what are you doing out of your seat?"

I flushed and sat down quickly. "Sorry, Miss. I was just trading chairs with this boy here." I pointed.

Miss Lawson frowned. "Very well. But please, get back to work, hon."

"Yes, Miss." I began the word search again with renewed vigour. I still couldn't get that boy out of my mind.

My mind control worked on everyone. Everyone! Sometimes not on the Whitecoats and not on the Erasers. Sometimes not on Fang. But it worked with everybody else, especially gullible boys my age.

Yes, something was amiss.


	4. 4: Seeing

Chapter 04…Seeing

* * *

_The tricky thing_

_Is yesterday we were just children_

_Playing soldiers, just pretending_

_Dreaming dreams with happy_

_Endings_

_In backyards_

_Winning battles with the wooden swords_

_But now we've stepped into a cruel world_

_Where everybody stands in_

_Keeps score_

_Keep your eyes open!_

~from _Eyes Open _by Taylor Swift

* * *

**_~Ella POV~_**

I met the Flock in the cafeteria, a smaller table by the vending machine. Gazzy and Nudge were the first to join me, their trays covered in food.

"Didn't my mum pack you a lunch?" I teased them, as I began to unwrap my own burrito.

Nudge shrugged, playing with a lock of her unruly hair. "Well. We do need to eat a lot, you know. We need to eat so much or else we get really, really hungry really, really fast. All of us, even Angel. Once, in Colorado, when Jeb was still there, Angel ate five sausages for breakfast. Five! And she was only three then. And plus she had eggs and toast and fruit too. And milk. And juice. And hot chocolate. Jeb always used to make us hot chocolate in Colorado. Did you know that? Well, you do now. And he always put two marshmallows in it. Two, always, each and every time. Always. Hey, _always_ is a quote from _Harry Potter_. It's what Snape says in the last book. Dumbledore asks him if he still loves Lily, Harry's mum, and Snape says, "_Always"._ It's a quote from _The Hunger Games_ too, but Suzanne Collins stole it from J.K. Rowling. Is that plagiarism? I don't know. Hmm. Well, anyway, she used it all the same. I don't remember which book that was in, but I think it was the third one. Or maybe the second. In one of the Katniss-and-Peeta scenes. That's how I know it isn't in the first book, because Katniss doesn't even realize - "

A hand suddenly crept from behind and covered Nudge's mouth. Annalisa leaned over her, laughing. "All in one breath, Nudge! I think that's a record!"

Nudge sighed. "I did it again, didn't I?"

Gazzy nodded, mouth full of grilled cheese. "Mhm. Two hundred and two words."

"You counted?" asked Iggy from behind Annalisa, incredulous.

Gazzy shrugged indignantly. "What? I can count higher than that, you know."

Iggy shook his head and plopped down onto the bench next to Nudge. He never failed to amaze me, the way he could simply _tell_ where things were, especially in an unfamiliar environment. I was further taken as he picked up his bag of crisps and ripped it open without so much as feeling it.

Nudge began playing with her hair again. "So, I was in class today – as you know – and we were learning something – math, I think, stupid exponents and whatnot – and I heard from Angel."

I raised my head. "Angel?"

Nudge nodded. "Yeah, Angel. I wonder what's taking her so long, eh? And Max and Fang too. Well, I guess they're just coming." She frowned. "Angel didn't sound too good. I told her to relax but now I'm worried about her. Why is she taking so long? I'm sure she's fine though. I mean, she was prob'ly just held up for not doing her work or something."

"I didn't do my work," the Gasman argued, tahini spilling from the corners of his mouth. "And I didn't get held up."

"Well," said Max from behind me, "we're here now." She plopped down onto the bench, rested her head against the table. "Ugh. I'm exhausted. I mean, I can only take so many maths problems before my head goes _kaput_."

As she spoke, Fang sat down in that slow, soundless way of his. Calm and collected. It could send chills up my spine. Without so much as wrinkling the wax paper, he unwrapped a thick gyro and took a bite, gaze level with mine the whole time.

_He doesn't trust me, not at all. _

I had no idea why this realization only came to me now. But it did. It came as something of a slap in the face, a taunting chant. _You'll never be one of them. You don't have wings._

Angel, meanwhile, had been leaning against the vending machine, her eyes fixed on a group of boys at another table. Celeste tucked under one arm, white backpack dangling by one strap from the other elbow.

"Angel?" asked the Gasman concernedly.

The six-year-old looked up and nodded. "I'm coming." She took a seat next to her brother and opened her lunch box, propping Celeste the teddy bear up against my tray. Slowly, she unwrapped the burrito my mum had packed all of us. She took a bite. Put it down with a sigh. "I have to tell you guys something. Something really important. It has to do with - " she lowered her voice " – the School. I think." An uncertain glance my way.

Max shot me a warning look. I shook my head. "Must I?"

Max nodded. "I'm sorry, El' , really I am. But…well…it might…please, Ella? It won't be long."

I sighed and rose. "I'll go to the washroom." I stepped over the bench and began to make my way down the corridor. I glanced over my shoulder once. Angel didn't began talking until I was gone.

* * *

**_~Angel POV~_**

"So, Angel. Do tell." Max leaned forward. "Something about the School, you say?" She frowned. "God, Angel, you didn't…I mean…do we have to leave?" She shot to her feet.

I reached out and shook my head. "No, Max…but…well…"

"Well, what?" asked Iggy.

I lowered my voice further. "Well, there was this boy in my class who had a pink chair, and I had a blue one. He asked to trade chairs with me, and I said okay. But he just took the blue chair and made get up and _get_ the pink one myself. It wasn't hard, but it was rude. So I asked him three times. He didn't move."

"By ask, you mean, _influenced_?" Max's words were slow and deliberate.

I shrugged sheepishly. "Well. Yes. And he was only six, like me. Kids are really, super easy to infla…infle…um…"

"Influence," Iggy stated gently.

"Right. Kids are really easy to…influence. And his head, it was like a brick wall. I couldn't get in. Like Erasers sometimes." I shuddered and reached to Celeste for comfort. "It scared me."

"Well, maybe you just weren't concentrating?" Nudge suggested.

I shook my head no. "Max, I had a vision afterwards. I really had to pee, so I asked to go to the toilet and the teacher said yes. And when I was peeing, I had a vision."

The Gasman giggled. "While you were _peeing_?"

I stuck my tongue out at my brother. _Boys._ "I had a vision," I repeated pointedly.

Max put an arm around me, and Fang glared about him like any of the other children in the cafeteria might have done something to hurt me. Iggy stopped eating and frowned. Gazzy put his hand on mine. They were always doing things to keep me safe, the Flock. As if I couldn't take care of myself, just because I was small.

_Don't worry about it, Angel,_ my Voice made itself into my head, soothing and loving. _Don't worry about it. If your vision was true, then you're even more powerful than the Flock thinks you are._

I argued back, _I don't want any more power. I have lots. _Ignoring my Voice, I described what I'd seen.

"Well, I saw a computer. And a filing cabinet with files in it. Mine and Gazzy's names were on them."

"My name?" asked Gazzy.

"Yes," I said, "and mine too. But nobody else's. And I saw…the Institute, the one here in New York. At least I think it was the Institute. See, I also saw a sign that said, _Welcome to Pittsburgh._"

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?" Nudge wanted to know.

"That's the only Pittsburgh I know," I answered her.

Slowly, the arms around me loosened and my shield dispersed. A blanket of prolonged silence fell between us all. At last, Annalisa spoke.

"So. What does it mean?"

"I don't know what it means," I replied. "I dunno what _any_ of it means. But it was scary." I took a bite of my burrito. "The boy's over there, by the way." I pointed.

The strange boy in my class was seated at a larger table by the windows. There were many other boys around him, mostly big kids. Perhaps twelve, thirteen. Fourteen of them at most. He was the only one younger than ten. Most of the boys at his table looked at least sixteen, and they were all muscular and tall.

"Which one? I can't see him," Nudge protested, craning her neck for a better view.

"Yeah, I can't see him either," said Iggy flatly.

Ignoring him, I pointed again. "The one by the biggest boy with the black hair. That one there, in the red shirt. He's next to him."

Nudge raised an eyebrow as she spotted the boy. "He looks way older than a first grader. From here, anyways."

Our view was obstructed, suddenly, by a gaggle of senior girls carrying flyers. "Message from the Drama Council," one of them said, passing a flyer to each of us. "Try out for the school play! We're doing a musical this year."

"Which musical?" Annalisa questioned without looking up from her book.

A ginger girl leaned over. "Same one for the book you're reading, doll."

Annalisa frowned and looked up. She inspected the flyer. As she read it, a smile lit her face. "You're doing the musical of _Les Mis_?"

"The one and only that's been glorifying Broadway for years," confirmed the ginger girl. "We're holding tryouts two Mondays from now. You can audition for whichever character you want. It gives you a list of characters and the songs you have to sing in your audition. Like, if you want to play Fantine, for instance, you have to sing _I Dreamed a Dream_ and _Fantine's Death _with a boy who's auditioning for Valjean_._"

_Les Mis_! I remembered that musical. When we were in London, Annalisa had insisted we go see it on the West End. I asked the lady for the best seats in the house, and even though some of the play was kind of boring for me, I really loved it. We'd all had a great time. Even Fang said liked it, when we met up with him and the boys again. And Fang never showed that he liked much of anything.

Plus, Annalisa told me none of it was boring. She said I just thought that because I was little. I supposed she was right. I'd especially liked the parts with young Cosette and older Eponine.

Once the girls were gone, I turned to Max in delight. "Oh, Max! Please can I try out? I want to be young Cosette!"

Max chuckled and tweaked my nose. "You can if you don't _influence_ the people to give you the part."

I frowned. "I won't, don't worry, Max. I want to get the part fair and square." It was true, too. I didn't want to cheat my way into the play. I wanted to get in knowing I was who the girls were really looking for. I inspected the flyer. For the audition, I would have to sing _Castle on a Cloud_.

"I might try out for Eponine." Nudge shrugged. Folded the flyer, tucked it away into her lunch box. "I know I'm kind of too young, but I still want to try. I like _Les Mis._ I like the song _On My Own._ And I like _A Little Fall of Rain_, even though it made me cry. And I also love the song _A Heart Full of Love_. And _Eponine's Errand_ might be fun to sing too. Besides, I'd like to be on Broadway someday."

"With _wings_? While we're on the _run_?" Max shook her head. "Good luck, Nudge."

The eleven-year-old's shoulders slumped slightly, and I sensed her disappointment. Max's guilt.

"You should try out, Ig," Annalisa nudged him with her elbow.

"Who would I play?" he protested.

"Marius."

"But Marius is a bland idiot," Iggy argued.

Annalisa winked. "Precisely."


	5. Chapter 5: Working

Chapter 05…Working

* * *

_Is all that we see or seem_

_But a dream within a dream?_

* * *

- _A Dream within a Dream_, Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

_**~Iggy POV~**_

Annalisa took out her feelings by slamming her locker door shut. Next to hers, mine rattled slightly on its hinges.

"Bloody hell," I muttered. "Slam it harder, why don't you?"

"Whatever you want." A pause as she probably opened it, then she slammed her locker door shut again with twice as much force. "There."

I only shook my head as I snapped the lock shut on my own locker, swung my backpack over my shoulder. "Come on, let's go. Where are we supposed to meet them?"

Her hand slipped into mine. Warm, soft. "On the playscape, by the sand-pit." A tug and she was half-leading, half-yanking me along, just like she always did. Together, we made our way out the double doors and across the football field.

"Here we are. We're the first ones." Her hand dropped from mine, and I heard her sit down. In the minute or so that followed, she read her God-knows-how-many-pages book, and I tried to remember the useless facts the administration tried to drill into my brain.

But before long, the rest of the Flock – plus Ella – joined us, Angel greeting me the same way she always did. Throwing her thin little arms around my waist with a chirp of, "Hi, Ig, hi, Ig!"

"Hey, Ang'." I greeted her with that same complimentary hair-ruffle I knew she loved. As per usual, a giggle escaped her. And as per usual, her tiny hand slipped into mine as we began to walk home, her familiar footsteps the sweet rhythm of skipping as she sang to herself softly.

My Angel, my sister. Our Angel.

Our angel.

I didn't know the streets of New York very well. Not yet. But I think we walked down Madison Avenue before boarding the subway.

The walk to the subway was no different, really, than our walks in the towns of Colorado, when we'd been living in our mountain home.

When things had been simple. Safe.

Max was talking with Nudge and the Gasman. Ella, too. Annalisa was reading as she walked. Angel was holding my hand, skipping and singing. Today, it was _Castle on A Cloud._ Fang was being Fang. And I was listening to the sounds around me, thinking about what to make for dinner and my latest bomb.

And in that flurry of thoughts and sounds, Angel stumbled to a stop next to me. "Oh!"

"What is it?" I sighed. No doubt she'd spotted some cute, cuddly kitten in the window of some pet shop. Poor kitten. Living in a cage. No different from us, really.

"Oh, _Ig!_ Max! Can I…?" Angel's small hand slipped from mine as she wandered over to what was presumably the window of some shop.

"What is it now?" There was no missing the faint hint of irritation in Max's voice. "A bath shop? A _bath shop_?"

Annalisa's footsteps sounded, approaching me. "A bath shop?" I whispered.

"Yep," she confirmed. "Angel's looking in the window of a bath shop."

I heard Angel's little voice say, "That towel there, it matches Celeste. Oh, Max, please can I have it?"

Max's tone was firm. "No, Angel. No. You can't have it."

A whine crept into the six-year-old's voice, and I feared she might begin to use her power of mind control. "But _Ma – ax_!"

"No!"

Angel took my hand once again, but she dragged her heels all the way to the subway, whining under her breath. I heard her whispering to her teddy bear: "Don't worry, Celeste."

* * *

**_~Annalisa POV~_**

Iggy and I shut the door to my bedroom. Max and Ella wanted to do their homework at the kitchen table, which was fine by me. The kitchen table was a dinky Formica counter that always wobbled. The bedroom I shared with Max and Ella had a desk.

A sturdy desk.

I tossed my backpack onto the floor and collapsed backwards onto the bed. I glanced at the Maths binder peering out of it, mocking me. I groaned. "All this homework…kill me now."

Iggy grinned and sat down next to me. "Will an epic explosion suffice in your mercy-killing?"

I slammed by pillow onto my face, feeling rather like Phoebe in _The Catcher in the Rye_. "Anything."

Iggy nodded and slowly cocked his head in the direction of the Monopoly board. How he'd known where I'd put it, I would never know. "Monopoly is math…kind of. Technically."

I shot him a grin. I didn't care if he couldn't see it. He could tell half the time, anyhow. Iggy and I had a very close bond that mainly consisted of the following:

a) Sassing each other

b) Me taking his things and hiding them

c) Him taking my things and hiding them in revenge

d) Me waking him up in the middle of the night to read Shakespeare loudly and dramatically

I got to my feet, set up the Monopoly board. There was something incredibly addictive and competitive about that capitalist board game. We played the same way we always did: me as the Sack of Money, he the Horse and Rider. Rolling the dice to see who went first, taking $10 from the bank every time one us landed on Free Parking. It wasn't easy to win against Iggy. He knew the board off by heart, which I didn't. He was also much wiser when spending his money. I wasn't.

I didn't know if I was wise with money in real life or not. We'd never had much money to spend, and that was always spent on food.

Sometimes, I wondered if this was all real. An illusion. A dream within a dream, to quote the Edgar Allan Poe poem.

The School. The Flock. Life.

Me.

Iggy rolled a seven and landed on the Water Works.

"You gonna buy it?" I asked him, reaching for the deeds.

Iggy made a face. "No. No, of course not. Who buys the utilities anyway? _Nobody_ buys the utilities."

* * *

_**~Nudge POV~**_

"We have to start rehearsing!" I told Angel. I took one of her small hands in mine and pulled her towards our bedroom. "Come on! We can't let anyone bother us!"

Angel nodded. She pulled away from me and skipped into our bedroom, Celeste swinging from one hand. I followed her and shut the door, leaned against it. "So, what do we do?"

Angel set Celeste down on her bed and ruffled the pillows. She frowned. "Well, I guess we should go through Castle on a Cloud and A Little Fall of Rain together. You could be Madame Thénardier for me, and I could be Marius for you." She looked up at me keenly. "I'd like to see you being Madame Thénardier!" She giggled. "It's very unlike you."

"I couldn't agree more. So, should we put on costumes or something while we rehearse? Maybe we could drag the Formica table in here and you could wipe it while you sing. And we could get the table and chairs and set them up to make the barricade and then when we do A Little Fall of Rain we can sort of sit up against it. All the chairs and the table…hey, that makes me think of Marius' solo, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. That is such a sad song. Isn't is sad? When we went to see the play, I cried while we saw that."

Angel shook her head. "But that'll take too long. And besides, little Cosette should be sweeping because the line goes, "Aren't any floors for me to sweep."

In the end, Angel ran and got a broom. We did use our night tables as the tables of the inn, and we used the garbage pail as Cosette's bucket.

I hummed the background music of _Castle on a Cloud_ as Angel sang. And when she finished, I leaped out from behind a table with the most dramatic "_Now look who's here!_" I could muster.

Angel doubled over in giggles.

"What? What did I do?" I frowned.

Angel smirked. "That was funny! The way you jumped out from under the table. Here, try again…"

I went through all of Madame Thénardier's lines, and we even used Celeste as little Eponine.

Angel, meanwhile, pulled an incredibly convincing young Cosette, complete with a bowed head and barely-suppressed tears. There was something intimate in Angel's performance that broke my heart.

Angel could act like a terrified, tragic little girl because in truth, she was acting like herself in the School. Angel was only two when Jeb got us out, and she remembered almost nothing.

But there were some things that couldn't ever be erased from her young memory.

It had been about a week or so before we escaped. I'd been in my cage with a broken wing. I'd been trying to sleep, and Max had been leaning through the bars of her own cage. Stroking my hair, trying to comfort me.

The door had banged open. Max's head snapped up and I'd clutched onto her hand, terrified at the idea of her leaving me for the slightest millisecond.

A Whitecoat had stepped in, followed by three Eraser guards. We hadn't called them Erasers back then. We didn't even know what a regular eraser was. They'd simply been dubbed the Bad Wolf Men.

The biggest of the Bad Wolf Men had grabbed Angel's cage and thrown it across the room. Angel had screamed and burst into tears. The Bad Wolf Man reached through the bars of her cage and dug his claws into the sides of her face.

"Shut _up_!"

Angel, in her toddler's sheer terror, stopped crying at once. The Bad Wolf Men had taken her away, and the Gasman had grown hysterical.

"Where are they taking her? Max, where are they taking her? What are they going to _do_ to her?" he'd kept saying. It was after an hour he'd started rattling the bars of his cage and screaming, "Give me back my sister! I want my sister!"

The Whitecoats had electrocuted him to make him stop making so much noise.

Angel had returned to us three days later, shaken and marred with welts. Max had immediately grown concerned and asked her what they'd done to her.

And she had whispered back in a tremulous voice, a voice shaky with barely-suppressed sobs, "It wasn't what they did to _me_, Max."

Turned out, they'd tied Angel up to a pole, her wings pinned down to her sides, and forced her to watch as the useless subjects were put to death. The pitiful creatures had been forced to battle countless Erasers, and if they were strong and managed to win, they would be tossed into a pool of bleach and left to die.

And every time, Angel screamed or cried, they whipped her fifteen times. A whip with a sharp barb on the end. She'd stayed like that, being constantly beaten without anything to eat or drink, with no sleep, for three days straight.

Seventy-two hours.

Angel still bore many of those scars. The mental and the physical.

After going through what she did, she really didn't have to act.


End file.
